I need some advice on hooking up my 24 volt batteries for my trolling motor.
1.Do I hook the two batteries together by connecting positive to positive and negative to negative?

2.My main cables for the trolling motor do I hook one to # 1 battery positive and one to the # 2 battery negative?

3.I have dual battery charger.When I hook to each of the batteries can I leave them connected together when
charging them or do I have to disconnect the two batteries?

Thanks in advance.

perchjerker

02-19-2004, 10:08 AM

No,senario #1 would be hooking them up in parallel, you would still have 12 volts.

Batt 1 pos to batt 2 neg. Batt 1 neg and batt 2 pos to your motor.

As far as the charger, that depends on if the banks are isolated or not. You have to check your instructions or tell us what kind it is, maybe someone with that model will know.

Black Cardinal

02-19-2004, 10:08 AM

I assume these are 12V batteries that you want to use in a 24V system? If so, you would connect the negative terminal of one battery to the positive terminal of the other. The positive terminal of the first battery would then go to the positive terminal of the motor, and the negative terminal of the second battry to the negative terminal of the motor. Here's a diagram:

I don't have enough familiarity with the dual battery chargers to answer that question.

walter

02-19-2004, 10:12 AM

Miller,

For a 24V system you would hook the pos. (+) from the trolling motor to the pos. (+) on battery No.1.
Then run a jumper from battery No.1 neg. (-) to battery No.2 pos. (+).
Finally, hook the trolling motor neg.(-) wire to battery No.2 neg.(-) terminal.

i.e. in the typical 12 volt battery there are 6 little batteries that are connected in "series."

With a series connection, the battery voltage adds up to make a total higher voltage that is equal to the sums of the individual batteries.

So, as the other posts suggest, you want to continue to combining the 2.2 volt batteries together until you get 24 volts.

The other posts explain the method.

Take care
REW

Miller

02-19-2004, 11:29 AM

Rew do I have to disconnect the two batteries when charging them. Thanks

REW

02-19-2004, 11:43 AM

No,
You can charge this battery setup several ways.
1. Use a 24 volt battery charger - readily obtained from Bass Pro shop, or many farm outlet stores. Simply connect the charger to the same + and - connections across the entire 24 volt battery, to which you have the trolling motor connections connected.

2. You can use 2-12 volt battery chargers. Simply connect each battery as if it were by itself to each charger. Note that you will have the - charger of charger #1 and the + charger of charger #2 connected to the same terminal.

3. Same as 2, except use a single 12 volt charger. First charge battery #1. Then charge battery #2. No need to disconnect anything when using any of the above methods.

4. Use a built in charger - typically a 3 bank charger so that you can leave banks one and two permenantely connected to the trolling motor batteries, and bank 3 to the starting battery.
Again, no need to disconnect anything.

Take care
REW

MrWalleye73

02-19-2004, 01:17 PM

Don't do what I did....I rigged the 24 volt battery setup for a 12 volt motor. Dumb kid at the boat store drew me a diagram and everything. That's when I was a baby in the boating world. Minnkotas go "pop", spark and smoke, then they die....REW has the right setup, and a built in charger makes life easy. That's why we're here, to ask questions.

Chris

MrWalleye73

02-19-2004, 01:17 PM

Don't do what I did....I rigged the 24 volt battery setup for a 12 volt motor. Dumb kid at the boat store drew me a diagram and everything. That's when I was a baby in the boating world. Minnkotas go "pop", spark and smoke, then they die....REW has the right setup, and a built in charger makes life easy. That's why we're here, to ask questions.

Chris

FOOTDOC 1

02-19-2004, 08:52 PM

Thanks for the info on hooking up the 24 volt system. I am wondering if you can run 12 volt accessories off of this 24 volt system. Can I simply run a lead off the + and a lead off the - of one of the batteries hooked up in this 24 volt system to simply run a cigarette lighter outlet? I want to convert my system to a 24 volt system for a new minn kota and still want to keep my 12 volt cig lighter accessory! Thanks for the advice and before I activate anything, I will probably go down to the local marina and get it double checked! Thanks again.

Hangman

02-19-2004, 10:24 PM

Yes you can.

fishhunter

02-20-2004, 04:03 AM

Is this a new boat? If it is most of them are pre wired and you hook the wires like you normally would for two seperate twelve volt batteries and the plug end to the trolling motor will have to be switched to make it run 12 or 24 volt.

wallytap

02-20-2004, 05:21 AM

If 2 batts. are in series for 24V how is a 12V connection made? Thanks